Preventing mob violence and lynching is responsibility of state govts: PM Modi

Mandya, Feb 17: About 40 passengers were injured in a collision between a KSRTC bus and a tipper lorry near Srirangapatna in the district on Monday.

Police said that the incident occurred when the bus was stopped to allow passengers to alight when the tipper lorry rammed against the bus.

The victims have been admitted to the Taluk hospital and the severely injured have been shifted to a hospital in Mysuru.

Bengaluru, Jul 6: Criminal cases will be registered against private hospitals that refuse treatment to COVID-19 patients, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference here at Vidhana Soudha, he said: "No hospital should refuse to admit patients and if any hospital is found denying treatment criminal cases will be registered against them."

He spoke to media persons after returning from his surprise visit to Jayanagar General Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Chest Hospital responded to the questions regarding private hospitals refusing to treat covid patients.

"The government has come up with 6 different systems for treatment of COVID-19 patients. COVID care centres, government medical colleges, private medical college, government hospitals, corporate hospitals and home isolation with proper facilities and according to government guidelines," the minister added.

Dr Sudhakar gave the statistics of 4 metropolitan cities in the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.

"Bengaluru's and the mortality rate is the lowest at 1.46%. The aim is to increase testing by optimal utilisation of capacity especially in private labs. Once we increase testing, it is natural that the positive cases will also increase," he said.

"So citizens need not panic due to this but should take all precautionary measures. He advised to get tested in the nearest fever clinics as soon as any symptoms like cough, fever etc are found. Guidelines regarding the home isolation will be released soon," the minister said.

He announced that 400 ambulances will be deployed in Bengaluru and 2 each for every ward.

He said that the government recommended patients at private hospitals will be provided with insurance under Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust.

"If private hospitals refuse to admit the patients, call 1912 helpline to get assistance. If admitted in Private hospital voluntarily the treatment cost will be borne by patients as per the rates fixed by the government," Sudhakar said.

He said that the cost of testing at private labs has been capped at Rs 2,200 as per test.

Bengaluru, Jun 8: Karnataka recorded 308 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, with the majority of patients being domestic returnees, raising the state's tally to 5,760 an official said, here on Monday. "Over 308 new cases were reported from Sunday 5 pm to Monday 5 pm," said the health official.

Like everyday Maharashtra returnees accounted for 96 per cent (267 cases) of the 277 new cases. Majority infections in Karnataka nowadays are returnees, mostly from the state's northern neighbour.

A few returnees also came from Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. There was one international returnee, a 23-year-old man from Dakshina Kannada, who came from the UAE. Only 24 new infections were contacts of earlier cases.

On Monday, cases spiked in Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Bidar, Udupi, Bengaluru Urban, Ballari and Gadag.

Among the new cases, Kalaburagi contributed (99), followed by Yadgir (66), Bidar (48), Udupi (45), Bengaluru Urban (18), Ballari (8), Gadag (6), Shivamogga and Dharwad (4 each), Hassan and Dakshina Kannada (3 each), Bagalkote (2) and Koppal and Ramnagar (1 each). Four patients are suffering from Influenza-Like Illness (ILI).

Meanwhile, record 387 patients got discharged in the past 24 hours. On Monday, three persons - A 67-year-old man, a 48-year-old woman and another 65-year-old woman, all from Bengaluru Urban, succumbed to coronavirus.

Of all the cases, 3,175 are active, 2,519 discharged, 64 dead and 14 in the ICU.

In the past 24 hours, Karnataka tested 8,779 people. Of this, 8,231 reports returned negative. A number of tests were lower than other days. In total, 3.93 lac samples have been tested so far, of which 3.8 lac have returned negative.

Currently, Udupi is leading the state's COVID-19 burden with 628 active cases, followed by Kalaburagi (539), Yadgir (488), Raichur (276) and Bengaluru Urban (176) among others.

Bengaluru Urban has accounted for 18 deaths, followed by Kalaburagi (7), Bidar, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada (6 each) and Chikkaballapur (3 each), among others.